Jacques Kallis and Hashim slammed contrasting, unbeaten century on the first day of the first Test match against India at Nagpur to put South Africa in a position of great strength.
Batting first after winning the toss, the South African side were in early trouble as they lost both their openers before they had reached double figures. Ashwell Prince’s horror run with the bat continued as he failed to read a short ball from Zaheer Khan and was caught by the wicket-keeper MS Dhoni for a duck. Even before this, he had had a couple of LBW appeals going for him, but this time around, the ball hit his wrist and was declared out by the umpire, rather unluckily.
Graeme Smith played an unusually quiet innings of six off 26 balls, before an in-swinger from Zaheer had his stumps castled. The ball nipped back slightly and the bat was nowhere in picture as the stumps went for a walk; South Africa 6/2.
It was at this stage that the Indian side seemed to be on top and cock-a-hoop of their chances in the game. However, the pair of Kallis and Amla first saw out the new ball and then had a stand going for them.
Both got to their half centuries, but after that Kallis took off as he went after the Indian spinners. Harbhajan Singh was not spared as he continued to leak runs, whereas Amit Mishra tried his best but did not get the purchase he would have liked through the rest of the day.
In the end, Kallis remained unbeaten on 159, whereas Amla was 115 not-out as the South Africans ended the day at 291/2 to lead their side to a position from where they can dictate terms.